Reading's Gylfi Sigurdsson fires in a shot towards the Liverpool goal before Steven Gerrard can get in a challenge

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Gylfi Sigurdsson revealed that a bet made with striker and best-mate Simon Church at the beginning of the season is driving him on to score goals for Reading.

The Iceland under-21 midfielder is currently the club’s top scorer with seven in all competitions, but former housemate Church is catching up with him and is just two behind on five.

Sigurdsson joked: “He was a couple ahead at the start of the season, but I knew I would come good as he doesn’t score that many!

“Churchy is catching up so I need to start scoring again as I don’t want him to catch me.”

Both Sigurdsson and Church will have the chance to add to their tallies against top-of-the-table Newcastle United on Saturday at Madejski Stadium (3pm kick-off) in front of more than 20,000 fans.

But Sigurdsson knows it won’t be an easy task. He said: “I think they (Newcastle) will be going straight back up.

“If they don’t win the league then they’ll finish second, I can’t see them ending in the play-offs the way they’re going at the moment unless something goes wrong.

“Newcastle are flying at the moment and we’re looking forward to that and we’re hoping to get a win.

“We can definitely get a result against them if we play like we did against Liverpool.

“It will be a good game and hopefully our fans will be like they were against Liverpool.”

Reading could also set a club record by fielding four Iceland internationals against the Magpies, as long as Gunnar Thorvaldsson’s international clearance comes through and Brian McDermott picks him.

“Its good to have him,” said Sigurdsson.

“I don’t think it’s happened anywhere else (four Iceland players playing in a team outside of Iceland), it would be good if he came on and we had four of us out on the pitch.

“I didn’t really know who he was when he came over as he was quite young when he was playing for the national team, but he’s a good lad and has been doing well.

“Hopefully he’ll get into the squad and take his chance.”

Sigurdsson has twice picked up the Post’s player-of-the-month award already this season after making 20 appearances and scoring seven goals. And the 20-year-old admitted that he was over the moon with his impressive form.

He said: “I’m not happy with where we are in the league, but I’m happy with my own performances and I want to keep my place in the team.”